이승우 소설의 공간 연구 : 헤테로토피아와 공동체의 가능성을 중심으로 = A Study of Space in Lee Seung-u’s Novels : Heterotopia and the Possibility of Community

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study examines the major spaces represented in Lee Seung-u’s novels, The Reverse Side of Life （1992）, Song of the Earth （2012） and In a Foreign Land （2022）, with particular attention to Michel Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. It traces how space functions in Lee’s fictional world and how its meaning is transformed and expanded across his works. Since his literary debut in 1981, Lee has continued to explore metaphysical questions concerning human existence, salvation, desire and responsibility. These concerns are developed through various narrative forms, and their transformation becomes especially visible when one follows the protagonists’ physical movements and spatial experiences. In this sense, space in Lee’s fiction is not simply a narrative background or structural device; rather, it is an essential element that shapes the conditions of human existence and life itself.
To examine this issue, this study draws on Foucault’s understanding of space. Foucault views human beings as living within a network of relations that define arrangements such as institutions, knowledge, and technologies of government, none of which can be reduced to one another. He also understands space in relation to the operation of power at the level of micro-relations. In this framework, heterotopia refers to a space that is connected to other social arrangements while also deviating from or contesting them. While taking Foucault’s concept of heterotopia as its central framework, this study also refers to the theories of Yi-Fu Tuan, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Marc Augé. Through these perspectives, it analyzes how fictional space encompasses place-based experiences grounded in sensation and emotion, while also serving as a medium through which ethics toward the Other, political practice, and human responsibility are brought into view.
Chapter 1 examines the spaces of the backyard, Mugeuksa Temple, Jungjido, the church, and the small room in The Reverse Side of Life as heterotopic counter-sites shaped by Park Bu-gil’s childhood wounds and desire to escape oppression. Although Park senses and resists various forms of power in unfamiliar spaces, he remains trapped in self-identification by projecting his own lack and desire onto others. Only after his separation from his lover, Kim Jong-dan, does he come to recognize her as an exterior being who cannot be absorbed into his own desire.
Chapter 2 analyzes Song of the Earth by focusing on Cheonsan Monastery, the military, the interrogation room, and the beauty salon as heterotopic spaces in which power, discipline, and ethical responsibility intersect. While the monastery functions as a heterotopia for both Hu and Han Jeong-hyo, its meaning and effect differ according to each character’s relation to guilt and responsibility. Their expulsion from the existing community ultimately reveals the possibility of a new community not confined by immanence.
Chapter 3 examines the hotel, pub, friends’ houses, and the Bobo cherry tree in In a Foreign Land as heterotopic spaces that expose the subject to unfamiliarity, instability, and new relations with others. The hotel and pub appear as non-places of temporary residence and anonymous encounters, while also revealing the structures of mobility and exclusion in the age of market democracy. Through Hwang Seon-ho’s encounters with refugees, animals, nature, the dead, and other marginalized beings, the novel expands the scope of otherness and rethinks responsibility and community under non-place conditions.
Ultimately, this study demonstrates that space in Lee Seung-u’s novels functions not merely as a background or symbolic device, but as a concrete field in which the subject experiences questions of power, the Other, and community. Whereas the spaces in The Reverse Side of Life appear as counter-sites that reveal wounds, oppression, and the limits of self-identification, the spaces in Song of the Earth and In a Foreign Land expand into relational places that allow the subject to reflect on responsibility toward the Other and the possibility of a new community. In this sense, heterotopia in Lee Seung-u’s novels begins as a heterogeneous space that contests the order of reality and is transformed into an ethical space that reveals relational ethics with the Other and the possibility of community.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 서 론 1
• 1. 연구 목적 1
• 2. 연구사 검토 및 문제 제기 5
• 3. 연구 대상 및 방법 12
• Ⅱ. 본 론 18
• 1. 유년의 장소, 반공간으로서의 헤테로토피아 : 생의 이면 18
• 1） 애착과 금기의 공간 : ＂뒤란＂, ＂무극사＂ 18
• 2） 환락과 도피의 공간 : ＂중지도＂ 23
• 3） 회복과 안식의 공간 : ＂헌책방＂, ＂도서관＂, ＂교회＂, ＂골방＂ 28
• 2. 주체의 자기 동일성과 내재성의 공동체 : 지상의 노래 36
• 1） 타자를 향한 순례의 여정 36
• 2） 내재성의 공동체와 규율의 공간 : ＂수도원＂, ＂군대＂ 45
• 3） 세상 너머를 꿈꾸는 공동-내-존재 55
• 3. 주체의 '홀로서기'와 새로운 공동체의 가능성 : 이국에서 68
• 1） 미지의 가능성으로서의 타자 68
• 2） 비장소의 공간 : ＂호텔＂, ＂펍＂ 85
• 3） 무위의 공동체와 축제의 헤테로토피아 98
• Ⅲ. 결 론 113
• 참 고 문 헌 116
• ABSTRACT 121